14 DAY TRIAL // The evolution of the processor will in turn dictate the development of future versions of the Windows platform. In this context, Windows Vista's successors will be intimately connected with the next generations of multicore processors. However, this change will not affect only Microsoft and the operating systems to follow Windows Vista, but all products with a processor for a heart.
Ty Carlson, Microsoft Director of Technical Strategy revealed during the Future in Review 2007 conference that the operating system to come after Vista will be fundamentally different. In parallel with the evolution of processors, client desktops will also begin to deliver additional horsepower. It will not be uncommon for configurations to feature in excess of 64 processors for the same system.
And Microsoft will be forced to adapt that to the future versions of the Windows platforms. By comparison, Vista will provide support for no more than four processors. In the end, it will all come down to the serial processing versus multiple core processing. The main processor manufactures have indicated that multiple core parallel processing is the future, preferring it to the serial approach.
On a side note, this transition will not happen over night, and Carlson was referring to a period of 10 to 15 years into the future. In order to get an idea of this you have to take into consideration the move from 32-bit to 64-bit platforms. As far as the server side is concerned, Microsoft has made things crystal clear. Windows Server 2008 will be the last server operating system to support 32-bit. This means that, following the release of Windows Server Longhorn R2, an update to upcoming Windows Server 2008, Microsoft will complete the transition to 64-bit hardware.
As far as the Windows client operating systems are concerned, the word is still out on whether Vista's successor will be exclusively x64. Still, Microsoft has denied the fact that it has made up its mind to make Windows seven only 64-bit.